Detection of rabies virus in saliva of apparently healthy dogs

The high incident rate of dog bites in urban areas and a report establishing dogs as the major vector of rabies in Nigeria, motivated the investigation of rabies in the saliva of apparently healthy dogs. Three categories of dogs were tested (a) pet dogs (b) security dogs and (c) stray dogs. Mouse inoculation and fluorescent antibody tests were employed for the investigation. In the 229 dogs tested, 127 were pets, 57 were security dogs and 45 were strays. Of all these dogs, only two were positive for the rabies test and both were from the 45 stray dogs. This is 0.87% of the total dogs tested. The indication of this finding is that the risk of contracting rabies from such bites may be high.